The dynamic and always
controversial television producer shares fifty years of show business and
politics, with all the candor and wisdom expected from the creator of All
in the Family.

The legendary creator of iconic television programs All in the Family, Sanford and Son, Maude,
Good Times, The Jeffersons, and Mary
Hartman, Mary Hartman, Norman Lear remade our television culture—while
leading a life of unparalleled political, civic, and social involvement.
Sharing the wealth of Lear’s ninety years, Even
This I Get to Experience is a memoir as touching and remarkable as the life
he has led.

In the 1970s, Lear’s comedies were viewed by 120 million
people per week, with stories that reflected
the most serious issues of their lives and still left them howling. But before
this, Lear led a charmed life throughout postwar Hollywood’s golden years,
befriending the likes of Carl Reiner and Mel Brooks; writing and directing
Frank Sinatra, Robert Redford, Dick Van Dyke, and Martha Raye; becoming the
highest-paid comic writer in the country while working for Jerry Lewis and Dean
Martin. Norman Lear also flew some fifty bombing missions over Germany with
the Fifteenth Air Force.

Shamelessly in love with the country the Founding Fathers
laid out for him while his own father was serving time, Lear won the first
American Legion Oratorical Contest speaking about the Constitution. He later founded
People for the American Way, a national organization to protect the civil
rights and liberties of us all, and bought an original copy of the Declaration
of Independence, printed the night of July 4, 1776, not to hang on a wall in
his home but to travel across the country to schools, and libraries, and
public institutions to be shared with citizens everywhere.

Married three times and the father of six children ranging
from nineteen to sixty-eight, Lear’s penetrating look at family life,
parenthood, and marriage is a volume in itself. Told with the charm and candor
of one of the century’s greatest storytellers, Even This I Get to Experience is nothing less than a profound gift,
endlessly readable and characteristically unforgettable.

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Quotes & Awards

A TV titan on his memorable life and storied career. Lear, best known as the creative mind behind such classic comedies as All in the Family, Maude, The Jeffersons and Good Times, recounts his extraordinarily eventful life with his signature wit and irreverence. The result is not just a vividly observed and evocative portrait of a long life, but also a fascinating backstage look at the evolution of the American entertainment industry... Lear writes movingly of his service in World War II, his difficult upbringing and subsequent troubled marriages, and his commitment to liberal causes, evidenced by his founding of the advocacy organization People for the American Way and his purchase of an original copy of the Declaration of Independence. That he makes these subjects as engrossing and entertaining as his Hollywood reminiscences speaks to Lear's mastery of storytelling and humor. A big-hearted, richly detailed chronicle of comedy, commitment and a long life lived fully."

Publishers Weekly:

[A] feisty, thoughtful autobiography… Lear pens sharply observed studies of the creative process on his many iconic productions and bares plenty of raucous, sometimes bawdy anecdotes—readers get to experience a nude and lewd Jerry Lewis… [I]n keeping with the bigoted, mouthy, complex and loveable characters he created, Lear's knack for sizing up a flawed humanity makes for an absorbing read.”

ADVANCE PRAISE

President William J. Clinton

That Norman Lear can find humor in life’s darkest moments is no surprise—it’s the reason he’s been so successful throughout his more than nine decades on earth, and why Americans have relied on his wit and wisdom for more than six. It’s also why EVEN THIS I GET TO EXPERIENCE is such a great read.”

Carl Reiner

Norman Lear could never write a more dramatic, touching, or funnier tale of his life than he’s done here in EVEN THIS I GET TO EXPERIENCE.”

Bill Moyers

Many have known the Man behind the stories. Now all of us can know the stories behind the Man. Archie, Edith, Gloria, and Meathead couldn’t have told them better!”

Arianna Huffington

EVEN THIS I GET TO EXPERIENCE is not just the brilliant, moving story of a man who has lived an amazing number of lives—from making it onto Richard Nixon’s ‘Enemies List’ to changing the face of television—but also a life manual on how to live a life of depth, purpose, and meaning.”

will.i.am

Norman Lear is a hero and a friend . . . he experienced so much in his life . . . sometimes I just want to sit down and ask him questions about life and his perspective . . . to do it right it would take years of interviews . . . but now that he wrote this book I can experience his journey and wisdom over and over again.”

Trey Parker

Fantastic stories from one of the wisest, most subversive, and most beautiful human beings the comedy world has ever known. Like the man himself, this book is charming, awe-inspiring, and hilarious.”

“Many have known the man behind the stories. Now all of us can know the stories behind the man. Archie, Edith, Gloria and Meathead couldn’t have told them better!”

Bill Moyers, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Healing and the Mind

The Wall Street Journal:

The Norman Lear who emerges from “Even This I Get to Experience” is engaging and unpompous, an amusing storyteller who pokes fun at himself and writes with brutal honesty about his life, especially his childhood. And what a story!"

Associated Press:

An entertaining, penetrating celebration of a richly lived life.”

Los Angeles Times:

Immensely likeable…[Lear] isn't always a mensch in "Even This I Get to Experience" (italics, characteristically, his), but at least he can write like one…. In this city, Norman Lear and his post-coaxial contemporaries built a mass medium with their bare hands. On good days — as Lear well recalls, and recalls well — they made it sing. If only more with their talent had lived so long; if only more who live so long had his talent.”

Booklist (starred):

This is, flat out, one of the best Hollywood memoirs ever written… An absolute treasure.”

Kirkus Reviews (starred):

“That Norman Lear can find humor in life’s darkest moments is no surprise—it’s the reason he’s been so successful throughout his more than nine decades on earth and why Americans have relied on his wit and wisdom for more than six. It’s also why Even This I Get to Experience is such a great read.”

Bill Clinton

“The Norman Lear who emerges from Even This I Get to Experience is engaging and unpompous, an amusing storyteller who pokes fun at himself and writes with brutal honesty about his life, especially his childhood. And what a story!”

Wall Street Journal

“An entertaining, penetrating celebration of a richly lived life.”

Associated Press

“An entertaining piece of TV—and American history.”

Barnes&Noble.com, editorial review

“Immensely likeable…[Lear] isn’t always a mensch in Even This I Get to Experience, but at least he can write like one…. In this city, Norman Lear and his post-coaxial contemporaries built a mass medium with their bare hands. On good days—as Lear well recalls, and recalls well—they made it sing. If only more with their talent had lived so long; if only more who live so long had his talent.”

“Not just a vividly observed and evocative portrait of a long life but also a fascinating backstage look at the evolution of the American entertainment industry…A bighearted, richly detailed chronicle of comedy, commitment, and a long life lived fully.”

Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

“[A] feisty, thoughtful autobiography…Lear pens sharply observed studies of the creative process on his many iconic productions and bares plenty of raucous, sometimes bawdy anecdotes…In keeping with the bigoted, mouthy, complex, and loveable characters he created, Lear’s knack for sizing up a flawed humanity makes for an absorbing read.”

Publishers Weekly

“Narrating his own memoir, Lear looks back on his long life mostly with wry amusement and humane acceptance, but he also expresses a range of emotions—from exasperation to wonder and grief. His voice sounds, understandably, a bit creaky but engaging and expressive as well. His pacing and timing are excellent as he keeps the material fresh, his tone reflecting his memories as he recounts them. It’s a remarkable life filled with accomplishment in television, film, and political activism, and his accounts are moving and revealing. Anyone with an interest in the past sixty years of entertainment should be absorbed and may find that, like life itself, the book goes by too quickly.”

About the Author

NORMAN LEAR is the television producer of such groundbreaking sitcoms as All in the Family, Sanford and Son, One Day at a Time, The Jeffersons, Good Times, and Maude. He has received four Emmy awards, a Peabody, and the National Medal of Arts. As an advocate, Lear founded People for the American Way and supports First Amendment rights and other progressive causes.

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